Mass Relays reduce the entire corridor of space between them to negative mass, thus allowing for effectively instant transportation between them. Non-Relay FTL is achieved by folding space around the ship using Eezo, which is how you got around between relays in ME3. You're right that the distance involved is incredibly massive, though; if they really make it in 600 years, they're probably going to have either some revolutionary new on-ship FTL (unlikely) or they somehow harness a Relay to shoot them most of the distance (more likely).

Member

Yeah, this is my one concern after reading the OP. The pause mechanic was a fun mechanic; queuing up attacks for yourself and squad mates, or just taking in the lay of the land before engaging enemies.

Member

The conversation with Sovereign is better written than anything that takes place in 2 or 3, the series never managed to reach that height ever again, in fact the series actually ended up retconning Sovereign's excellent dialogue in the sequels.

I know it's a controversial opinion, but I find the combat of ME1 while unquestionably jank as fuck, to be more interesting than any of the encounters in 2/3. Playing a shitty gears of war clone is not exactly what got me interested in the series, I might agree with you if there wasn't SO much of the same repetitive combat it in 2/3, to the point where level design became exclusively linear, funneling you through hour long sub-par TPS levels until you can get to the next piece of story. I feel like an encounter in ME1 could play out in many different ways depending on your choices, I remember outsmarting my enemies and getting myself out of tricky situations, where in 2/3 I just remember one infinite loop of take cover, shoot repeat ad nausieum, and the abilities didn't really change that, the game still played the exact same as a different class.

It's worth mentioning, I've replayed ME1 3 times, twice on 360 and once on PC years later, and I would definitely say it wasn't until I played it with a mouse and keyboard where I actually found myself thoroughly enjoying the combat, which blew me away at the time, as I always thought (like most of you) that ME1's combat was irredeemable trash, to find myself enjoying it was pretty surreal, I even ended up doing a lot of the combat-heavy side quests purely for the fun of it. Having every ability on a hotkey definitely felt like it was the intended way to play it, to the point where I'm shocked I even beat it in the first place, the way it plays on a controller feels terrible and stifles improvisation.

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The removal of the ability to pause and select abilities/commands and the homogonization of the classes bothers me. Every iteration they remove a little bit more of the tactical RPGness. I will reserve complete judgement until we see more in-depth gameplay (read: not at the game awards) but if this is the direction they continue to head in this may well be my last game in the series.

It seems like Bioware's latest efforts (Dragon Age, Mass Effect) have tried to give their gameplay mainstream appeal, but in trying to appeal to anyone they may end up disappointing everyone.

Member

The removal of the ability to pause and select abilities/commands and the homogonization of the classes bothers me. Every iteration they remove a little bit more of the tactical RPGness. I will reserve complete judgement until we see more in-depth gameplay (read: not at the game awards) but if this is the direction they continue to head in this may well be my last game in the series.

It seems like Bioware's latest efforts (Dragon Age, Mass Effect) have tried to give their gameplay mainstream appeal, but in trying to appeal to anyone they may end up disappointing everyone.

I swear to god, if this amounts to the same thing from DA:I where you just ping like crazy with the stick-button trying to find stuff (ie. herbs, plants, etc) I'll be pissed right the hell off. One of the worst parts of that game was feeling the need to constantly ping while you walked forward.

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Wasn't ME3's model wildly successful for them? They'll probably take the same tack.

Mass Relays reduce the entire corridor of space between them to negative mass, thus allowing for effectively instant transportation between them. Non-Relay FTL is achieved by folding space around the ship using Eezo, which is how you got around between relays in ME3. You're right that the distance involved is incredibly massive, though; if they really make it in 600 years, they're probably going to have either some revolutionary new on-ship FTL (unlikely) or they somehow harness a Relay to shoot them most of the distance (more likely).

Member

-There are no loading screens as you move through the ship
-Galaxy map returns but rather than piloting a mini ship on a map, it is more immersive, you select a planet, the game gives you sense of traveling towards that planet, and when you back out, you're immediately at your destination
-You don't pilot the ship manually, but it feels seamless as you go from planet to planet and see them from your bridge getting closer in the window
-They wanted a seamless experience from picking a planet to walking down to your cargo hold, hopping into the Nomad and landing on a planet. There is a landing sequence and you get off the ship. No more loading screens and instantly popping up on the surface of a planet.

Except for the lack of manually controlling the Tempest, these are big and important things for me that I'm happy to hear about. I hope the exploratory nature and ambient synth are up to snuff, that's all I need to be happy.

I hope there is.
There's definitely a colonization aspect to the pathfinder role. And if it's 100% optional it might as well no be here. I love the Inquisition idea, it's a shame that last gen console prevented them to fully realize it

D-Member

Sounds good but also rather familiar. I don't expect their changes to actually feel monumental, but we'll see. I really hope they've revamped how they design their combat encounters. The way they are in the previous games would feel archaic and tired today, I think.

They've done a really poor job at marketing this game so far. We should've had a combat demo by now.

Banned

From what I can tell, it's more like the ancient (possibly evil) artifacts are part of the conflict between the newly arrived Milky Way species and the existing establishment, which is supposed to be more gray/sympathetic in nature. Hopefully they pull it off.

not me

The conversation with Sovereign is better written than anything that takes place in 2 or 3, the series never managed to reach that height ever again, in fact the series actually ended up retconning Sovereign's excellent dialogue in the sequels.

I know it's a controversial opinion, but I find the combat of ME1 while unquestionably jank as fuck, to be more interesting than any of the encounters in 2/3. Playing a shitty gears of war clone is not exactly what got me interested in the series, I might agree with you if there wasn't SO much of the same repetitive combat it in 2/3, to the point where level design became exclusively linear, funneling you through hour long sub-par TPS levels until you can get to the next piece of story. I feel like an encounter in ME1 could play out in many different ways depending on your choices, I remember outsmarting my enemies and getting myself out of tricky situations, where in 2/3 I just remember one infinite loop of take cover, shoot repeat ad nausieum, and the abilities didn't really change that, the game still played the exact same as a different class.

It's worth mentioning, I've replayed ME1 3 times, twice on 360 and once on PC years later, and I would definitely say it wasn't until I played it with a mouse and keyboard where I actually found myself thoroughly enjoying the combat, which blew me away at the time, as I always thought (like most of you) that ME1's combat was irredeemable trash, to find myself enjoying it was pretty surreal, I even ended up doing a lot of the combat-heavy side quests purely for the fun of it. Having every ability on a hotkey definitely felt like it was the intended way to play it, to the point where I'm shocked I even beat it in the first place, the way it plays on a controller feels terrible and stifles improvisation.

Agreed ME1 combat feels a lot better with KB&M, mostly because you need a mouse's precision to mitigate the clunky aiming and shooting.

I can think of plenty moments in 2/3 that I think are written better than the Sovereign convo, though perhaps not as epic. Plenty of character scenes like Javik's convos, Mordin's loyalty mission, Thane's prayer in ME3, Eve talking about her stillborn/krogan female struggles, Legion explaining the geth in ME2 convos, the integration of Tali's romance into Rannoch, the final convos with your squadmates on Earth, the Leviathan convo at the end of that DLC, etc.

I'm not a big fan of Sovereign in general though. I feel his lines are super generic and blustery.

Member

I hope there is.
There's definitely a colonization aspect to the pathfinder role. And if it's 100% optional it might as well no be here. I love the Inquisition idea, it's a shame that last gen console prevented them to fully realize it

Member

Banned

I hope there is.
There's definitely a colonization aspect to the pathfinder role. And if it's 100% optional it might as well no be here. I love the Inquisition idea, it's a shame that last gen console prevented them to fully realize it

The Inquisition's progression system was ill-concieved and poorly designed. The concept is sound, but BIoWare apparently couldn't think of the mechanics to make it work. I can't really blame them though, adding a institutional progression system that appeals to a wide audience on top of a AAA RPG with heavy emphasis on production value is nigh impossible.

Actually, DA:I was supposed to have something more to it in terms of the zone progression that did get cut for memory reasons. Stuff like building up your own bases and fortresses, and dealing with various problems that arise from that. Would have contributed greatly to the sense of progression if you could have seen, say, the Hinterlands change as your fort exerts its influence on the area.